Let Girls Learn

Let Girls Learn is a U.S. government initiative that helps adolescent girls attain a quality education. Educating girls is essential to healthy and thriving communities. However 98 million girls worldwide are not in school, and barriers to adolescent girls’ education continue to persist. All girls should have the opportunity to gain the skills, knowledge and confidence to break the cycle of poverty, raise healthier families, and help build their communities.

This interagency initiative builds on decades of USAID efforts to lift girls out of poverty, and empower them to reach their full potential. Through our ongoing education, global health and economic empowerment programs, USAID is reaching girls in every corner of the world. We champion a “whole-of-girl” approach, strengthening our focus on the adolescent girl and taking into account the myriad of challenges girls face in seeking an education.

Our Work

USAID’s Let Girls Learn Program aims to help adolescent girls by working towards three goals.

Photo: USAID

Goal One: Increase Access to Quality Education

Through our ongoing education work, we invest in programs that teach girls to read and write, provide safe access to schools for both students and teachers, and ensure those living in areas affected by crisis and conflict have access to an education. We also help girls to access education alternatives, workforce training and employment opportunities.

Goal Two: Reduce Barriers

We focus on the wide range of vulnerabilities adolescent girls face in seeking an education, including early pregnancy, malnutrition, menstrual hygiene, and preventing and responding to HIV. Girls also face economic barriers, including school fees and the cost of materials to attend school. We work to mitigate gender-based violence, and child, early, and forced marriage.

Goal Three: Empower Adolescent Girls

Building on our efforts to empower and uplift women and girls around the world, USAID works to increase girls’ rights, leadership skills and opportunities through broader skills in finance, digital literacy, science, technology, engineering, agriculture and mathematics. We also work to change attitudes and behaviors regarding the value of girls’ lives by encouraging positive gender roles, engaging men and boys, and working within communities.

Let Girls Learn Challenge Fund

In July 2015, President Barack Obama announced the Let Girls Learn Challenge Fund, a unique opportunity for USAID to work with a vast array of external partners to co-create innovative programs to ensure that adolescent girls enroll in and succeed in school. The Challenge Fund brings together unlike minds from different sectors such as health and education to address the many needs of girls in order to help them stay in school and feel empowered in all aspects of their lives.

In October 2016, the White House announced the apparent Challenge Fund awardees for Malawi and Tanzania.

Our Impact

Since the launch of Let Girls Learn, through both new and attributed funds, USAID has invested over $600 million dollars on Let Girls Learn programs in 13 countries across Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.

We have rethought “business as usual,” and have sought to bring girls to the center of our programming efforts across sectors—health, education, economic empowerment and more. To better serve the needs of adolescent girls we are collecting age- and sex-disaggregated data, using the data to better inform future programming and decision-making. From Malawi to Nepal, adolescent girls are a powerful force for change and can help break the cycle of poverty in communities around world.

Country Spotlight

Photo: Yves Zihindula, U.S. Embassy Kinshasa

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Investing In Her Future

“Sometimes we don’t have enough food to eat and I don’t like it.” Gorethy is 11-years-old and the oldest of 3 kids. Her father is a security guard and her mother sells snacks but it’s hard to make ends meet. When Gorethy couldn't pay her school fees, she was sent home. Thanks to a USAID scholarship, she doesn’t have to worry about that anymore. Every day, she leaves home at 6 a.m. and walks an hour to school. She is determined to finish her education and become a nurse.

Meeting Her Needs

The Empowering Adolescent Girls to Lead through Education (EAGLE) program is a holistic approach to help girls stay in school and improve their lives by addressing the range of barriers they face. EAGLE connects educational achievement to health, safety and positive gender roles. The program empowers adolescent girls to play an active role in their schools, families and communities and become agents of change.

Training Her Teachers

The Opportunities for Equitable Access to Quality Basic Education aims to improve teacher training by equipping teachers with the knowledge and skills they need in the classroom. The program also aims to improve equal access to basic education, and to increase opportunities for out-of-school youth by merging social-emotional learning with high-quality reading and math, and strengthening parent and community participation in education.

Ensuring Her Right to Education

The Equitable Access to Education and Learning Project is a new partnership with United Kingdom Department for International Development that will improve access to education and learning outcomes for girls and boys in conflict areas. The program will benefit more than 755,000 girls aged 10-18 who are not in school by improving the quality of teaching and learning materials, strengthening school governance, and mobilizing parents and communities to support girls’ education.